Bookmarks LXV: Thimble the Thrush

Found this one in my drafts too -- looks like Buttons the bunny had a friend.

I wonder what sparked these bookmarks. They're clearly a pair in theme and type-of-materials, but not a pair in their actual materials. Maybe I was working through some scraps?

This post was written in February 2019 and backposted.

Bookmarks LXIV: Buttons the Bunny

Found this one in my drafts from back in 2013 when I dipped back into the blog in February 2019. Might as well post it backdated to around the right time!

 

This post was written in February 2019 and backposted.

Bookmarks LXIII: Love Life

This bookmark is yet another scrap-user (yay!). I was thinking about using the blue piece of paper -- and lo, I turned it over and had already stamped the large heart on it! I believe it was while playing with the avalanche of mini Lawn Fawn sets and the eensy square Versamark pad.

Well, the heart was pretty cute and already colored in with silver, so I figured I might as well do something with it. A different Lawn Fawn set provided the "love life" sentiment, and then I put the blue scrap onto a kraft-colored scrap.

At that point it looked great. But I wanted it to be just a teensy bit less simple, so I took another couple of hearts and added them to the bottom right corner. Probably I should have just let all that white (blue) space be, but it turned out well.

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Hiding in My Craft Room #80: Super Scraps Saturday (100% scrappy -- no paper was cut to make this bookmark!)

I'm also linking up to DL.ART's Thankful Thursday Linky Party, where anything goes.

Supplies:

Bookmarks LXII: Purrquoise

I apologize for the punny title. It's just... there's turquoise. And purring. "Purrquoise" just seemed to fit.

Sometimes I reach a beautiful understanding with the craft knife/ruler team, and produce long, skinny, straight strips of paper. Sometimes just as scraps. Well, I couldn't bear to just throw them away, so I hoarded them for a bit and then stuck them on a bigger black strip of paper.

And while that was elegant, I wanted a little bit more. I shuffled through my newer stamps and picked out this adorable little cat -- made cuter by the purring text inside.

Because I was stamping on black, I knew I'd need to emboss for anything to show up. I was worried about the text, though -- would it still be readable after embossing? So I did several trial runs. I liked this one so well I decided it was unlikely I'd do better -- so I just cut it out and used it.

The bookmark still seemed a bit unfinished. So I went fishing in DCWV's "All Dressed Up" matstack, which has some really lovely teal and turquoise papers at the back -- hidden behind all the black and red and pink. They're pretty much what convinced me to buy the stack, actually. And lo and behold, one of them matched my turquoise scrap almost perfectly! I cut it in half and used it to back the bookmark -- thus allowing me to keep the hanging-off bits of scrap strips, stiffen the bookmark, and add a little to its design all at once.

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Paper Playtime #1: Pets
• Fairy Tale #58: Animals & Pets
• Creative Corners 2: Cute as a Button (c'mon, how can a purring kitty not be cute?)
• Hotshot Craft #14: Clean and Simple
• Incy Wincy Designs: Something New (the stamp and the tape are new)

Supplies: (tape is from Recollections/Michaels)

Bookmarks LXI: Dots on the Diagonal

The skeleton of this bookmark -- the purple strip with navy tape across the top -- has been hanging around for about a month and a half now. "Look at all the pretty green/blue/purple scraps you have," it kept saying. "Wouldn't they look great on me?" I hushed it, because I had to make thank you cards, dang it!

But I finished the thank-you cards, and then it was time to play with scraps. I taped the blue strip of paper on with some new tape and glued down a punched-out circle. Then I was stuck. The blue strip needed something on it, and none of my stamps really seemed to fit the bill. (I guess I was wrong when I kept stopping myself from buying border stamp sets.)

So I tried a strip of another new tape. It worked nicely to fill the empty space. A couple of circles with a silver pen, silver embossing powder around the edges, and I was done.

I'm entering this dotty bookmark in the following challenges:

• Incy Wincy Designs: Something New (new tapes)
• Papertake Weekly: Happy New... (Happy New Tape!)
• Victorine Originals #50: Sparkle & Shine (shimmery purple paper and lots of shiny silver)
• Crafty Sentiments: Sparkle & Shine/Glitter (no glitter, but the purple is shimmer paper and of course there's plenty of shiny silver)
• Cute Card Thursday 251: Beat the Blues (Well, I made a start on beating down the blue scrap pile!)
• Inky Chicks: Anything Goes

Supplies: (both tapes are from Recollections/Michaels)

Bookmarks LX: Scarfy Sledding

I couldn't resist recreating the sledding bunny thank-you card as a bookmark. And I had the perfect sentiment to do it with: I replaced "thank you" with "wheee!"

Since this bookmark has the same design as the thank-you card it's based on, it doesn't seem fair to double-enter it in the same challenges. I am, however, entering it in the following, since it fits rather well:

• Fairy Tale Challenge #58: Animals & Pets

Supplies:

Bookmarks LIX: Cheery Cherry Snowman

I quite liked a couple of the thank-you cards I made -- so I repeated them as bookmarks. That way I can keep them as well as send them away! The first one I did was a copy of the red card with the snowman that I posted earlier today. Of course, I didn't keep the thank-you sentiment.

I started by stamping a sentiment that said "snow, snow, snow" across the bottom... unfortunately, I stamped it very badly. I wracked my brain trying to figure out how to fix it... and finally settled for the simplest fix of all. I cut off the bottom. Then I found a different snowy sentiment and used that instead, putting it pretty much where the "thank you" was on the original card. Take that, mistake!

Since the design of this bookmark is pretty much identical to the card that inspired it, it doesn't really seem fair to enter it in any of the same challenges. However, I am entering it into this one, for which it seems quite well-suited:

• Creative Inspirations: Case It! (you betcha)

Supplies:

Bookmarks LVIII: White Snowflakes, Red Snowman

And here's my third (and final, as it's a three-entry challenge) bookmark for this fortnight's Lawnscaping challenge, which is a color challenge:

But wait, why fill one prompt when you can meet two challenges? For this bookmark I've used the sketch from this week's What If? Wednesday challenge at The House That Stamps Built, the Repeat Impression. It is quite a simple sketch, and therefore fits nicely in the skinny confines of a bookmark:

However, instead of a square I have a snowman.

Actually, I'm not really certain whether What If? Wednesday is a general papercrafty challenge or a card-only challenge. But it was such a good sketch for a bookmark that I used it anyway; if they disqualify the entry I'll still have got inspiration from it!

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Lawnscaping #47: Turquoise, Kraft, Red
• WHAT IF? Wednesday: Sketch #N2812
• Simon Says Stamp: Snowflakes (patterned paper)

Supplies: (washi tape from Recollections/Michaels)

Bookmarks LVII: Crooked Conifer

Well. While I had the turquoise and kraft and red out for this fortnight's Lawnscaping Challenge, I figured I might as well make a couple more entries for it. So this is the second one -- the first was the wordy birdhouse bookmark I posted earlier.

Of course, I should have actually brought out some Lawn Fawn stamps too. I'm really not sure what I was thinking.

Oh, no, wait, I'm pretty sure I was thinking "I MUST USE ALL THESE SHINY NEW THINGS I JUST BOUGHT," but honestly. Oh well. Next Lawnscaping challenge, I'll use Lawn Fawn stamps -- I can practically guarantee it, because some are coming in the mail, so they'll be the shiny new things.

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Lawnscaping Challenge #47: Turquoise, Kraft, Red
• Eureka Stamps #17: Winter Wonderland (it's pretty wondrous when the trees are red and turquoise, I think... well, maybe weird rather than wondrous)
• Charisma Cardz #48: Christmas (they may be oddly colored Christmas trees, but Christmas trees they are...)

Supplies: (the stamp is from a cling rubber set by Ditto / Hampton Art, and the washi tape is by Recollections / Michael's)

Bookmarks LVI: Dots and Fonts

I wanted to enter this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, "House Rules", but I wasn't sure how. Did I have any house stamps? A rummage later and I found that I did: one of a birdhouse, and one of a haunted house.

Well, I decided to have a go with the birdhouse, and I took the colors from this fortnight's Lawnscaping Challenge:

The birdhouse itself is so busy that I kept the rest of the bookmark pretty clean and simple: a couple of pieces of paper and a dotty strip of washi tape. (Well, "printed paper tape" from Target, anyway.)

I'm entering this wordy bookmark into the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp and Show: House Rules (a birdhouse is a house, surely?)
Lawnscaping Challenge #47: Turquoise, Kraft, Red
• The Artistic Stamper: Home for Christmas (I thought the words in the birdhouse were particularly appropriate.)

Supplies:

Bookmarks LV: Cinnamon Steam

I find that when my friend comes over to make bookmarks with me, I often end up making things out of her scraps. And they're things I'm really quite pleased with -- simple and not over-thought.

In this case, she was using a steam-patterned paper as a background for a dragon, and I trimmed the paper down around her stamping, leaving me with a few long skinny strips. Now, I don't have any long skinny dragon stamps (note to self: fix this), but I do have a teapot and a cup of tea with a wisp of steam coming out.

"What this scrap needs," I announced, "is tea."

So I stamped the teacup, went at the edges with ink and then with wet fingers, and when it was dry I glued the strip down on some nice pearlized paper... which was also a scrap from my friend's bookmark. Hey, if someone else is going to do the color-matching for me, I'm not going to complain!

(She also figured out what to put in the empty space... I think at least half the design credit here has to go to her!)

I'm entering this steamy bookmark into the following challenges:

• Loves Rubberstamps 29: Anything Goes (but not with a stamp carried by Loves)
• Stamp Your Life #1: Anything Goes (but not with a Stamp Your Life stamp)
• Great Impressions: Anything Goes (also not a Great Impressions stamp... I'm sensing a trend in my Anything Goes entries, are you?)
• Penny Black and More @ Allsorts: It's Your Choice (and, to keep up with the trend, it's not a Penny Black stamp either!)

Supplies:

Bookmarks LIV: Green Swirlies

This bookmark wasn't even my idea. My friend was going through my matstacks and said "This paper is so pretty! You could just cut off this side and it would be a pretty bookmark all by itself."

So I did.

Well, I couldn't resist backing the strip on something else and doing a little bit of stamping here, but the paper is really doing most of the work. It was quick and easy and it looks nice: how much more can I ask for?

I'm entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• Live and Love Crafts #6: Anything But A Card (bookmark!)
• Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes
• Loves Rubberstamps 29: Anything Goes (not a stamp carried by Loves)
• Stamp Your Life #1: Anything Goes (no Stamp Your Life products in this one, sorry)
• Great Impressions: Anything Goes

Supplies:

Bookmarks LIII: Dryad Rudy

Originally, Christmas Pixie Rudy here had a bright red paper-pieced nose. Then I checked to see how securely it was glued down, and spang! Somewhere, there is a little red nose. But it is not on Rudy.

So now Rudy's doing a study abroad program with the forest dryads, a.k.a. is completely green. At least I've given him a Christmas-y background!

Rudy himself is a scrap -- an example stamped onto a scrap. The green strip is also a scrap, cut away from a larger piece of dry-embossed paper. The red background isn't, but I'm still pretty happy with the scrap-to-new-paper use on this -- two out of three isn't bad, hey?

I'm entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• The Crafty Bloggers Network: Christmas Anything Goes (Christmas pixie, Christmas colors)
• S J Crafts Challenge 11: Christmas
• Whimsy Stamps Challenge 53: Use Traditional Christmas Colors
• WOW! Embossing Powder Challenge: Christmas (it isn't WOW! powder, but there's plenty of heat embossing here on both Rudy and the stars)
• The Stamp Man: Emboss It (both Rudy and the stars are heat embossed)
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Supplies: (I don't know what the plain green paper or the embossing plate I used on it are; I did it over at a friend's place.)

Bookmarks LII: Seven-Pointed Snowflakes

The inspiration for this bookmark was very simple. "Hey," I said to myself, "I should use this snowflake stamp." And the bookmark turned out to be a pretty simple thing too, which actually seems just right for snow.

I didn't do a terribly good job stamping evenly, but I like it anyway. I wish I'd bothered to count the spokes on the snowflakes before I bought the stamp, though... these are all wrong! Two of them have seven points and one has five, but real snowflakes have exactly six spokes.

Not that this makes these snowflakes any less pretty, so I don't think I ought to be disturbed about it. Real snowflakes aren't this big, either, and that doesn't bother me a bit.

I am entering this ice-blue bookmark in the following challenges:

• Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Winter
• Addicted to CAS Challenge #1: Snow
• Ladybug Crafts Ink: Snowflakes
• SweetStamps Challenge #93: Cold & Snowy (not a SweetStamps stamp, alas)
• Victorine Originals Challenge #48: Blue and White (a fairly turquoise-y blue, I admit)
• Ladybug Crafts Challenge 3: Monochrome/Tonal (heck, it's so monochrome it even matches my blog!)
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Supplies:

Bookmarks LI: Mod Cats

This project sat almost-completed on my desk for nearly a month, I think. I can't even remember why -- it was certainly very easy to assemble once I rescued it from the bottom of a scrap pile.

I'm not terribly happy with the tiny orange cat on the top square bit -- mostly because it's very hard to see that it's a tiny orange cat! I think the fault is in my color choice rather than the stamp, though, and I definitely like the bookmark as a whole.

I'm entering this cat-and-mouse bookmark into the following challenges:

• Southern Girls Challenge #58: Use Pink and Brown (sure, there's some orange too, but it's mostly pink and brown)
• Rogue Redhead Rebel Challenge 17: UnCard (it's a bookmark!)
• Joanna Sheen Challenge: Anything Goes Excluding Christmas
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Supplies:

Bookmarks L: Retro Blooms

Fifty bookmarks, that's what the "L" in the title means. Well, a few more, because some are pairs or triples. That's a lot of bookmarks. It's still way fewer bookmarks than I've got books, though.

There's nothing particularly 50-ish about this bookmark, except perhaps the colors. I don't really have a good grasp on popular color combos from sixty years ago, but certainly the turquoise seems about right...

But that wasn't the inspiration for this bookmark. It was very simple: I had some new paper. I had a highly unseasonal stamp set. And after some mix-and-matching of the papers to get two that worked together, I had this bookmark. I like how the froggie is slotted on top of the sign -- it seems much more dynamic than simply putting the two pieces of paper next to each other.

I suppose it's somewhere around late spring in the Southern Hemisphere right now, so hey! It's not unseasonal for everyone.

I'm entering this seasonal-depending-on-your-hemisphere bookmark into the following challenges:

• Deep Ocean Challenge #39: Pastel Colors (okay, not the brown, but most of 'em)
• Natalie and Amy's Challenge: Color Me Happy (use your favorite color combo) (at the moment I seem to be pretty into pairing brown with various bluish colors... here it's turquoise!)
• Timeless Tuesday #196: A Project That Makes You Feel Happy (look at that frog, I think he would make anyone feel happy!)
• Divas by Design Challenge 62: Use 2 or More Patterned Papers (Two papers: the flowery background and the brown spotted circle.)
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes

Supplies: (the tape is some of Target's printed paper tape)

Bookmarks XLIX: Jill Sparrow

At first I was going to paper-piece my little pirate girl, but then I got intimidated by all the cutting. Instead, I decided to try my hand at something else: coloring with Copics.

Now, I have no illusions about my skill at shading and blending at all: my coloring abilities are at "Level One: Can Stay Inside The Lines," and I'm actually pretty okay with that.

Also, I own a total of four Copics. You see, I bought them to edge paper terrain, so I have a grey one for stone, a brown one for dirt and wood, a green one for foliage, and a light blue one for water. It's a very sophisticated collection.

I love the little eyepatch I made, too! It was Krisha's idea several weeks ago when I asked for idea help on a WOYWW post, and I loved it immediately. I thought the bookmark needed just a little something more than Captain Jackie Sparrow there.

(Well really, look at that hairstyle and bandana and hat; it's a miracle she's not wearing heavy eyeliner as well, I think.)

I wanted to find my copy of Swiss Family Robinson to photograph the bookmark on, but I couldn't. So I've used Pippi in the South Seas (a Pippi Longstocking book), which fits rather well. (Unfortunately while reading through it I've realized that the story of Pippi's big fat white man father ruling a South Seas tribe of stereotypes is just a tiny bit racist. Bother.)

I'm entering this pirate-y bookmark in the following challenges:

• Cute Card Thursday: Girls Only (I'm so pleased to enter something so very not-pink-and-frilly into a girly challenge, I think the entries get a bit stereotypic a lot of the time...)
• Rogue Redhead Rebel Challenge 17: UnCard (it's a bookmark!)
• Dream Valley Challenge 45: Anything Goes
• The Artistic Stamper Creative Team: Anything Goes
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes

Supplies:

Bookmarks XLVIII: Foil in the Fall

I picked up one of Repeat Impression's vertical stamps at the Southfield, MI Stamp & Scrap Art Tour show this weekend, and almost immediately inked it up and stamped it to show it in Sunday's (late) State of the Stash.

(As I link to it, I realize that maybe I should have bought it online... it's one of the vertical stamps on sale this month! Oh well, I'm sure shipping would have eaten up the savings.)

In fact, it didn't take much more than that to work up this bookmark. I took the stamped-and-emobossed leaves, a neutral strip of cardstock with a bunch of gold and bronze and copper smudged on, and some of the acorn-y paper I used on the squirrel bookmark, and bam! Simple but effective, and undeniably seasonal.

I'm entering this leafy bookmark in the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp: Autumn Leaves
• Great Impressions: Fall
• Wags 'n' Whiskers Challenge 91: Fall Colours
• The Artistic Stamper Creative Team: The Natural World
• Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

Supplies: (foiled acorn paper is from DCWV's Autumn Melody matstack)

Bookmarks XLVII: The Cat Who Came For Christmas

Kitty cats and ornaments and Christmas coziness: that's this bookmark.

I've photographed it on a page from Cleveland Amory's The Cat Who Came For Christmas. I've shamelessly stolen his title, as you may have noticed, but I feel obligated to say that the cat in the book is white, whereas the cat on the bookmark is brown-striped. And red, too, which isn't exactly natural but is Christmas.

I'm entering this festive feline bookmark into the following challenges:

• Penny Black and More @ Allsorts: Animal Magic
• Southern Girls Challenge #56: Animal Crackers
• The Crafty Pad Challenge #194: Christmas is Coming
• Willow Sketchie Challenge: Christmas in October
• ABC Christmas Challenge: U for Up To You
• DL.ART Thankful Thursday: Any Holiday from October through December (Christmas!)

Supplies:

Bookmarks XLVI: Grey, Red, and Black

I used to think there were two kinds of squirrels: grey squirrels, and red squirrels. Then I moved to Michigan, where there are also black squirrels. I'm still not totally used to it, and I've been here for more than five years. Black squirrels!

(There is also a quasi-fourth type of squirrel here, which I call "who dipped half that black squirrel in a bucket of bleach?" squirrels.)

The internet tells me that black squirrels are just melanistic (i.e. very dark) grey squirrels, and can have all sorts of weird mottling patterns, but still. Black squirrels! They're not less cool-looking for the knowledge.

So when I wanted to make a fallish bookmark with some scraps of acorny paper and my new Lawn Fawn Critters in the 'Burbs stamps, the squirrel (and the acorn) were the obvious choice, and doing squirrels in three colors was only a very small step from that. They're all stamped and embossed in gold, and then I colored them in with silver (for grey), copper (for red), and black (for black... you probably figured that out) and stamped and embossed some acorns in the same set of colors.

The background brown paper is a scrap I used to soak up spray from the craft mat a while ago and then set aside to dry. I love to do this, especially with bookmark-y sized scraps of plain paper; they go back into the paper box to become neat backgrounds for future projects (like this one). I'm pretty sure there's both gold and copper spray on here, although I can only swear to the copper. In the picture it looks like there's silver as well, but that's just the lighting.

I have some lovely novels starring squirrels that I should have used to photograph this bookmark on, but they're in a box -- oh, shoot, the Redwall books aren't boxed, I could have used one of them! Anyway, I ended up putting it on a page of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I'm entering this squirrely bookmark into the following challenges:

• Penny Black and More @ Allsorts: Animal Magic (squirrels!)
• The Crafty Pad Challenge #193: Use An Animal
• Inky Impressions Challenge 82: Fall or Halloween (clearly, I've chosen Fall here)
• Great Impressions October Challenge: Fall
• Joanna Sheen Challenge: Autumn Breeze

Supplies: (the acorn paper is from DCWV's Autumn Melody matstack)